


Indelible

by prairiecrow



Series: One Degree of Separation [15]
Category: A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001)
Genre: Age Regression, Cryogenics, Established Relationship, Future Fic, Love, M/M, Programming, Robotics, Romance, Undying Passion, future shock
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-03
Updated: 2012-11-03
Packaged: 2017-11-17 15:30:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 776
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/553099
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/prairiecrow/pseuds/prairiecrow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Decades have passed and the world he once knew is gone forever, but Allen Hobby is discovering that some things are eternal.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Indelible

**Author's Note:**

> Set sixty-two years after Joe's imprinting.
> 
> Allen Hobby at this point in time: http://media-cache-lt0.pinterest.com/upload/93731235965163488_qZbMqBvn_c.jpg
> 
> Joe at this point in time: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_CvgEnPIYQ_U/TQOMyVy-84I/AAAAAAAAAQ8/H4tHASpIlnU/s640/jude_law2.jpg

"Forty… seven… years?"

He said it slowly, as if that would assist in the processing of each word. It didn't. The view beyond the luxurious apartment's wrap-around windows — a cityscape of soaring towers and streams of antigrav vehicles against a brilliantly blue sky — drove the point home much more viscerally, reminding him that he was a man profoundly displaced in time.

"Yes, Allen," a softly melodic voice affirmed from behind him. "Forty-seven years, three months, twelve days, sixteen hours, twenty-two minutes and seventeen seconds, to be precise."

"Since I went into cryostasis."

"Yes."

"Because of… the Shrike retrovirus?"

"It took a devastating toll on the orga population of the time. You were lucky I was able to arrange for your placement in cold storage."

"Yes… that much I remember." His focus shifted to his own reflection in the glass: a tall broad man with a profusion of sandy blond hair, wearing a face at least fifty years younger than he last remembered himself sporting. And behind him, arranged on a couch with legs gracefully crossed at the knee and shining with a beauty that was almost angelic, sat the creature to whom he owed his present lease on life.

"And what else do you remember?"

He turned to face Joe, shocked again by the changes, the more organic hair and the less plastic skin — and by the similarities, the elegant clothing and that preternatural loveliness and the brilliant eyes that still didn't blink as much as they should, full of such vital presence. The answer came from his mind, his heart, and his spirit: "You. I don't think I could ever forget you."

Joe did not smile. He merely nodded. "Why, thank you. I've been told that I am rather… memorable."

Allen Hobby had no doubt of that: after all, the lover-mecha he'd left behind had become, through a combination of talent and necessity, one of the foremost leaders of the robotic world in this far-flung future, influencing the highest levels of government, commanding armies and overseeing cities. There was an edge to him now that was new, an element of undeniable danger, perhaps even of lethal determination. How strange, that such an aura only deepened the sense of magnetic attraction. Gazing into those clear green eyes, Hobby responded with perfect honesty: "I remember loving you so deeply that I would have rather died myself than seen you come to harm. And I remember imprinting you, because it was the closest I could come to an act of marriage."

Joe nodded again. "You remade me. I wouldn't be what I am today, were it not for you."

"Is that why you kept my body in stasis for nearly five decades? So that one day you could wake me up long enough to express your gratitude?"

"Oh, Allen!" He unfolded himself from his seat on the couch and crossed the room with an effortless grace that still made Hobby's heart ache, to look up into the human's eyes with a seductive power that time had not diminished. "I have crafted this world, this city, and this tower, only for you. I've counted every second since I laid you to rest on that dark and terrible day, yearning for the moment when I would see your face and hear your voice again." He laid his hand lightly on Hobby's arm, and the flash of heat that passed between them made Hobby's heart race. "Until this hour, I have only half-existed."

Hobby stared down into the mecha's mask, his mind processing at high speed, gathering recollections up. "But — the imprinting protocol — I designed it to terminate upon my death, so that you would be set free."

"Yes, my darling — and it functioned exactly as intended." He ran his hand up Hobby's bicep to his shoulder, taking a half-step closer; the air between them burned with invisible incandescence. "But you had no power to terminate my love for you, which has endured undimmed and unaltered. I can only hope that one day you will —"

He got no further, before the orga caught his waist in both hands and closed the remaining inches between them. In the meeting of their lips time hung suspended, and when they finally parted just enough to speak Hobby's voice was throaty with desire: "It was only yesterday that I loved you more than life itself. Do you really think that the human heart is so changeable?"

Joe's smile was like sunlight, his laughter like music, and when Hobby swept him up in his arms to carry him to bed the tyranny of Time itself was overthrown, leaving only that which was eternal behind.

THE END


End file.
